Where EVERYONE walked to kindergarten, in the day — and no one considered that “neglect!” Join the fuming over at Let Grow! That town MADE me the Free-Ranger I am today! And now this!!!
Where EVERYONE walked to kindergarten, in the day — and no one considered that “neglect!” Join the fuming over at Let Grow! That town MADE me the Free-Ranger I am today! And now this!!!
5 Comments
I grew up in Wilmette too. Probably the safest place you could be. At 7 I was always out on my own riding bikes, walking the dog, playing outside, etc. the only possible danger would be cars. This is ridiculous.
agreed! similar to my experience. my committing to responsibility for walking dog, etc. at 7 or 8 required for us adopting puppy
investigated for what? what NY law could this violate?
A local newsman here in Richmond posted an arrcile about this. What’s that they say about not reading the comments? Sheesh. I posted a link to your website.
Wow. The person that called, really needs to get a life!
Do they waste the cops time, “tattling”, on every kid that lives close to school and walks? Did they think, maybe the mother is standing on sidewalk watching kids walk to school?
It’s Wilmette. Very nice suburb. This person is probably the type that speeds at school zones. Loser.
These stories are TRAGIC!
I am a 73 year old retired mathematician (professor, consultant, writer, wilderness enthusiast, philanthropist) who has been blessed in life. The beauty and success of my life was largely due to the freedom my parents gave me during my first 18 years. First, we lived in the big house above Frostburg MD, where untamed forest extended from our back gate into Pennsylvania. With friends my age, I explored it from breakfast until dark every day when not in school. Years later we lived in Lexington just outside of the University of Kentucky. After Sputnik, young people were encouraged to go into science, so I jumped on the bandwagon and with help from chemistry professors I built a home lab. That started in the 5th grade. Chemical suppliers would not sell opiates or more than 3 ounces of uranium salts to me, but anything else was available for a few dollars. I was good at organic synthesis and I had the curiosity of a little boy. So I made explosives, dyes, drugs, plastics, and purchased plant hormones, exotic toxins and psychoactive drugs for experimentation. Later, after completing my PhD, my wife encouraged me to blow off steam as an assistant to an arctic research team — seven weeks living in a tent in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska. My childhood in the great forest made this an experience of profound happiness and discovery. It was a perfect prelude to the next chapter in my life; the relatively tame career of an academic. Later, as a consultant to Army Intelligence and still later as a mathematician at Bell Labs’ I worked comfortably with scientists and engineers. My free-roving childhood was essential to my success in all of these areas!
The thought that modern parents deliberately deny their children the freedom to grow is inexcusable.